Official Report 443KB pdf
The first item of business this afternoon is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader is George Black CBE, chair of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth games.
Presiding Officer, First Minister, ministers and members of the Scottish Parliament, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
When I was first approached to be the chair of the Glasgow 2026 organising company, it was something of a surprise. I had been fully retired for five years and was very happy with my new life. However, as the chief executive of Glasgow City Council, I had been heavily involved in the 2014 games, from the initial bid to host the games right through to the delivery of the games themselves. The 2014 games were great for Glasgow and Scotland, and I was keen to protect and enhance the legacy of those games.
Two years ago, the future of the Commonwealth games was a genuine topic of conversation. The question being asked—in sport, in Government and in headlines around the world—was whether an event of this kind still had a place in the modern era. When Commonwealth Sport asked whether any country or territory would host the 2026 games, only Glasgow and Scotland stepped forward.
Of course, the 2026 games are quite different from the 2014 games. Glasgow 2026 is a deliberately reimagined games: 10 sports, with six fully integrated para sports, staged across four world-class venues in an eight-mile corridor in Glasgow. For the first time, it will be delivered with no public funding of the sports programme. It is a working blueprint of what is possible not only for the Commonwealth games but for mega events around the world—an opportunity to rethink what has been done before and to make a change. It is proof that world-class sport can be staged sustainably, affordably and inclusively in a way that opens the door to future hosts of every size and circumstance right across the Commonwealth. We know that the eyes of the world are watching and that it is taking note.
What our extraordinary team in Glasgow is doing is game changing: it is redefining what is possible for major events and the impact that they can make not just in our cities and communities but across our global networks. If we get this right—and we will—the impact of Glasgow 2026 will be felt not only in our communities and venues but in cities and towns across the Commonwealth, which will look at what Glasgow and Scotland have done and say, “We can do that, too.”
Sport has a unique power to bring people together across communities and across the country. I invite every member of the Scottish Parliament to go all in for Glasgow 2026: to experience the sport, take part in the festival and get behind the athletes from across these islands who will compete on the world stage in Glasgow.
Thank you for listening.